Chapter 7-Verbal

1. Chapter 7-Verbal • The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Cultural Variations in Language • Discourse: Language and Power • Moving Between Languages • Language and Identity • Language Politics and Policies • Language and Globalization

2. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Language Versus Discourse 1. La langue (language) - the entire language system, including various forms such as pidgin and creole. 2. Laparole (discourse) - how language is actively used by particular communities of people, in particular contexts, for particular purposes.

3. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Components of Language • Semantics • Syntactics • Phonology • Morphology • Pragmatics • Phonetics • International Phonetic Alphabet

4. Definition of Verbal Codes • Morphology: The meaning units • Syntactics: The relationship of words to one another (arrangement) • Pragmatics: The effect of language on perceptions and behaviors

5. Definition of Verbal Codes • Verbal Codes: a set of rules about the use of words • Semantics: The study of the meaning of words • Phonology: The sound units of language

6. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Language and Meaning: What language issues are universal? • The power of language • Systems of difference influence how we classify the world. • Expressions may not communicate the same meanings in different cultures.

7. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Language and Meaning:What language issues are universal? • Osgood’s semantic differential: - Evaluative dimension - Potency dimension - Activity dimension

8. The Study of Language: Thinking Dialectically • Language and Perception: • The nominalist position: Perception is not shaped by the particular language we speak. • The relativist position (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis): The particular language we speak determines our thinking and perception of reality. • The qualified relativist position: Language is a tool rather than a mirror of perception.

9. Cultural Variations in Language • Communication Style (verbal and nonverbal): • Tonal coloring or the metamessage contextualizes how listeners accept and interpret verbal messages. • Some cultural groups prefer high-context communication over low-context communication styles.

10. Cultural Variations in Language • Other Dimensions of Communication Style: • Direct/Indirect • Elaborate/Exact/Succinct • People communicate differently in different speech communities and contexts.

11. Discourse: Language and Power • Co-cultural communication • Language in use depends on social relations as well as contexts. • Orbe: Groups with the most power consciously or unconsciously develop communication systems that support their perceptions of the world, in which groups without power must also function.

12. Discourse: Language and Power • Orbe’s Co-cultural communication strategies:

13. Discourse: Language and Power • Semiotics - how different discursive units communicate meaning • Semiosis is the process of producing meaning. • Meaning is constructed through the interpretation of signs. • Signifiers are culturally constructed, arbitrary words or symbols we use to refer to something else, the signified.

14. Discourse: Language and Power • Discourse and Social Structure: Societies are structured so that individuals occupy specific social positions. • Power and labels: The use of labels, as signifiers, acknowledges particular aspects of our social identity.

15. Moving Between Languages • Multilingualism - A bilingual person speaks two languages. - People who speak more than two languages are multilingual. - Interlanguage is a kind of communication that emerges when speakers of one language are speaking in another language.

16. Moving Between Languages • Translation and Interpretation - Translation refers to the process of producing a written text (the target text) that refers to something said or written in another language (the source text). - Interpretation refers to the process of verbally expressing what is said or written in another language.

17. Moving Between Languages • Translation and Interpretation (cont.) - Languages differ in their flexibility of expression for different topics, which makes accuracy in translation, or equivalency, even more difficult.

18. Language and Identity • Code switching refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or accents. • - to accommodate other speakers • - to avoid accommodating others • - to express another aspect of their cultural identity Code switching can take on important political meaning.

19. Language Politics and Policies • Language policies are laws or customs that determine which language is spoken where and when. • They are embedded in the politics of class, culture, ethnicity, and economics--not language quality.

20. Language and Globalization • Rapid changes are occurring in the languages spoken and learned in the world. • The dream of a common international language or lingua franca has long marked Western ways of thinking. • Today, the dominance of English raises important issues for intercultural communication.

21. E. Meanings are Context- Based III. Message Characteristics A. Messages are Packaged = to create a unified meaning

22. Messages are Rule-Governed • C. Vary in Abstraction • D. Vary in Directness